The Dov Simens Of Modern Indie Filmmaking

For those not familiar with the name in the title of the blog, Dov Simens is a successful film instructor who gained his expertise from making his own films, not from a textbook at film school.  His 2 Day Film School is great for impressing the mindset necessary to complete a movie project, as well as providing resources that will help you along the way.  He also goes over film festival strategy, including how to deal with distribution reps who want to buy your movie.

While all this is great instruction, worth more than the price you pay in my opinion, the course doesn't offer a Plan B.  What happens when no distribution reps want to buy your movie, or the deals they offer suck?  Worse yet, what if you don't get into a festival?  You may be inclined to stop the good fight to get your movie out there, lower your flags, and head home.  Don't give up hope though, because there are other options.  Enter independent film producer Jason Brubaker and his website- http://www.filmmakingstuff.com/

If your movie production is just a group of friends, a camera, and a dream, read everything you can on that site and listen to the podcasts.  Jason walks you through how to get your movie into online retailers via video on demand and DVD, as well as how to market the film with your website and social media.  While it could be seen as more work for the indie filmmaker, it's also empowering to realize that in this day and age you have more control over when and where your film goes into the marketplace.  You don't have your filmmaking fate resting on the whims of some outsider, who may only be looking at your film as another way to earn some "marketing overhead" profit.

So take some time to read over that site, and get back to work tomorrow!

Write What You Know

*Inspiration for today’s blog comes from Daniel Fraizer of Comic Hero News*

After taking a screenwriting class with the world famous screenplay instructor Robert McKee (http://mckeestory.com/?page_id=27), Robert signed The Photon Effect writer Dan Poole’s textbook with “Write the truth”.  Once reading that, it may seem impossible to to conjure up a fictitious superhero using only your past experiences.  I mean, it’s not like a real life superhero with extraordinary powers hangs out in your neighborhood!  However, lessons can still be learned from that quote.

Is there any field of expertise in which you are knowledgeable of that could be harvested to create an original superhero/superhuman community?  What rules must be adhered to while working in that field?  What happens when those rules are broken?   Use those facts and consequences as a basis for your story instead of just some idea that sounds cool in your head.

For example, TPE director/writer Dan drew on his experience of climbing communications towers to develop the powers his protagonist would have. Couple that with dealings with shady business owners and real family struggle and you have a solid foundation to begin your creative process.

To sum it up, create characters and a plot based on what you know, and then have fun with all the little details.  If you don't know of a field in which superpowers could be developed from, start researching!  Get to the library or call on the power of Google to discover something new!